


Harriet Potter and the Philosopher's Stone

by Badsadas



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: FTM Harry Potter, Other, Trans Male Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-17
Updated: 2019-07-02
Packaged: 2020-05-13 10:59:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 11,917
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19249825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Badsadas/pseuds/Badsadas
Summary: This is basically a rewrite of Harry Potter expect Harry is canonically transgender. As you noticed I have included Harry's birth name which may feel a little weird but no one realises that Harry's trans until he gets his letter. The wizarding world knows him as the girl who lived not the boy who lived.





	1. The Girl Who Lived

Mr and Mrs Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank you very much. They were the last people you’d expect to be involved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t hold with such nonsense.

Mr Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, although he did have a very large moustache. Mrs Dursley was thin and blonde and nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over garden fences, spying on the neighbours. The Dursleys had a small son called Dudley and, in their opinion, there was no finer boy anywhere.

The Dursleys had everything they wanted, but they also had a secret, and their greatest fear was that somebody would discover it. They didn’t think they could bear it anyone found out about the Potters. Mrs Potter was Mrs Dursley’s sister, but they hadn’t met for several years; in fact, Mrs Dursley pretended she didn’t have a sister, because her sister and her good-for-nothing husband were as unDursleyish as it was possible to be. The Dursleys shuddered to think what the neighbours would say if the Potters arrived in the street. The Dursleys knew that the Potters had a small daughter, but they had never seen her.  
This girl was another good reason for keeping the Potters away; they didn’t want Dudley mixing with a child like that. 

When Mr and Mrs Dursley woke up on the dull, grey Tuesday our story starts, there was nothing about the cloudy sky outside to suggest that strange and mysterious things would soon be happening all over the country. Mr Dursley hummed as he picked out his most boring tie for work and Mrs Dursley gossiped away happily as she wrestled a screaming Dudley into his high chair. 

None of them noticed a large tawny owl flutter past the window.  
At half past eight, Mr Dursley picked up his briefcase, pecked Mrs Dursley on the check and tried to kiss Dudley goodbye but missed, because Dudley was now having a tantrum and throwing his cereal at the walls. ‘Little tyke,’ chortled Mr Dursley as he left the house. He got into his car and backed out of number four’s drive.

It was on the corner of the street that he noticed the first sign of something peculiar – a cat reading a map. For a second, Mr Dursley didn’t realise what he had seen – then he jerked his head around to look again. There was a tabby cat standing in the corner of Privet Drive, but there wasn’t a map in sight. What could he have been thinking of? It must have been a trick of the light. Mr Dursley blinked and stared at the cat. It started back. As Mr Dursley drove around the corner and up the road, he watched the cat in his mirror. It was now reading the sign that said Privet Drive – no, looking at the sign; cats couldn’t read maps or signs. Mr Dursley gave himself a little shake and put the cat out of his mind. As he drove towards town, he thought of nothing expect a large order of drills he was hoping to get that day. 

But on the edge of town, drills were driven out of his mind by something else. As he sat in the usual morning traffic jam, he couldn’t help noticing that there seemed to be a lot of strangely dressed people about. People in cloaks. Mr Dursley couldn’t bear people who dressed in funny clothes – the get-ups you saw on young people! He supposed this was some stupid new fashion. He drummed his fingers on the steering wheel and his eyes fell on a huddle of these weirdos standing quite close by. They were whispering excitedly together. Mr Dursley was enraged to see that a couple of them weren’t young at all; why, that man had to be older than he was, and wearing an emerald-green cloak! The nerve of him! But then it struck Mr Dursley that this was probably some silly stunt – these people were obviously collecting for something … yes, that would be it. The traffic moved on, and a few minutes later, Mr Dursley arrived into the Grunnings car park, his mind back on drills. 

Mr Dursley always sat with his back to the window in his office on the ninth floor. If he hadn’t, he might have found it harder to concentrate on drills that morning. He didn’t see the owls swooping past in broad daylight, though people down in the street did; they pointed and gazed open-mouthed as owl after owl sped overhead. Most of them had never seen an owl even at night-time. Mr Dursley, however, had a perfectly normal, owl-free morning. He yelled at five different people. He made several important telephone calls and shouted a bit more. He was in a very good mood until lunch-time, when he thought he’d stretch his legs and walk across the road to buy himself a bun from the baker’s opposite. 

He’d forgotten all about the people in cloaks until he passed a group of them next to the bakers. He eyed them angrily as he passed. He didn’t know why, but they made him uneasy. This lot were whispering excitedly, too, and he couldn’t see a single collecting tin. It was on his way back past them, clutching a large doughnut in a bag, that he caught a few words of what they were saying. 

‘The Potters, that’s right, that’s what I heard–’ 

‘–yes, their daughter, Harriet–’ 

Mr Dursley stopped dead. Fear flooded him. He looked back at the whisperers as if he wanted to say something to them but thought better of it. 

He dashed back across the road, hurried up to his office, snapped at his secretary not to disturb him, seized his telephone and had almost finished dialling his home number when he changed his mind. He put the receiver back down and stroked his moustache, thinking … no, he was being stupid. Potter wasn’t such an unusual name. He was sure there were lots of people called Potter who had a daughter called Harriet. Come to think of it, he wasn’t even sure his niece was called Harriet. He’d never even seen the girl. It might have been Hannah. Or Harper. There was no point in worrying Mrs Dursley, she always got so upset at any mention of her sister. He didn’t blame her–if he’d had a sister like that … but all the same, those people in cloaks … 

He found it a lot harder to concentrate on drills that afternoon, and when he left the building at five o’clock, he was still so worried that he walked straight into someone just outside the door.  
‘Sorry,’ he grunted, as the tiny old man stumbled and almost fell. It was a few seconds before Mr Dursley realised that the man was wearing a violet cloak. He didn’t seem at all upset at being almost knocked to the ground. On the contrary, his face split into a wide smile and he said in a squeaky voice that made passers-by stare: ‘Don’t be sorry, my dear sir, for nothing could upset me today! Rejoice, for You-Know-Who has gone at last! Even Muggles like yourself should be celebrating, this happy, happy day!’

And the old man hugged Mr Dursley around the middle and walked off. 

Mr Dursley stood rooted to the spot. He had been hugged by a complete stranger. He also thought he had been called a Muggle, whatever that was. He was rattled. He hurried to his car and set off home, hoping he was imagining things, which he had never hoped before, because he didn’t approve of imagination. 

As he pulled into the driveway of number four, the first thing he saw–and it didn’t improve his mood–was the tabby cat he’d spotted that morning. It was now sitting on his garden wall. He was sure it was the same one; it had the same markings around its eyes. 

‘Shoo!’ said Mr Dursley loudly. 

The cat didn’t move. It just gave him a stern look. Was this normal cat behaviour, Mr Dursley wondered. Trying to pull himself together, he let himself into the house. He was still determined not to mention anything to his wife. 

Mrs Dursley had had a nice, normal day. She told him over dinner all about Mrs Next Door’s problems with her daughter and how Dudley had learnt a new word (‘Shan’t!’). Mr Dursley tried to act normally. When Dudley had been put to bed, he went into the living-room in time to catch the last report on the evening news: 

‘And finally, bird-watchers everywhere have reported that the nation’s owls have been behaving very unusually today. Although owls normally hunt at night and are hardly ever seen in daylight, there have been hundreds of sightings of these birds flying in every direction since sunrise. Experts are unable to explain why the owls have suddenly changed their sleeping pattern.’ The news reader allowed himself a grin. ‘Most mysterious. And now, over to Jim McGuffin with the weather. Going to be any more showers of owls tonight, Jim?’

‘Well, Ted,’ said the weatherman, ‘I don’t know about that, but it’s not only the owls that have been acting oddly today. Viewers as far apart as Kent, Yorkshire and Dundee have been phoning in to tell me that instead of the rain I promised yesterday, they’ve had a downpour of shooting stars! Perhaps people have been celebrating Bonfire Night early–it’s not until next week, folks! But I can promise a wet night tonight.’ 

Mr Dursley sat frozen in his armchair. Shooting stars all over Britain? Owls flying by daylight? Mysterious people in cloaks all over the place? And a whisper, a whisper about the Potters…

Mrs Dursley came into the living-room carrying two cups of tea. It was no good. He’d have to say something to her. He cleared his throat nervously. ‘Er–Petunia, dear–you haven’t heard from your sister lately, have you?’ 

As he had expected, Mrs Dursley looked shocked and angry. After all, they normally pretended she didn’t have a sister. 

‘No,’ she said sharply. ‘Why?’ 

‘Funny stuff on the news,’ Mr Dursley mumbled. ‘Owls … shooting stars … and there were a lot of funny-looking people in town today …’ 

‘So?’ snapped Mrs Dursley. 

‘Well, I just thought … maybe … it was something to do with … you know … her lot.’ 

Mrs Dursley sipped her tea through pursed lips. Mr Dursley wondered whether he dared tell her he’d heard the name ‘Potter’. He decided he didn’t dare. Instead he said, as casually as he could, ‘Their daughter–she’d be about Dudley’s age now, wouldn’t she?’

‘I suppose so,’ said Mrs Dursley stiffly.

‘What’s her name again? Hazel, isn’t it?’

‘Harriet. Nasty, common name, if you ask me.’

‘Oh, yes,’ said Mr Dursley, his heart sinking horribly, ‘Yes, I quite agree.’

He didn’t say another word on the subject as they went up to bed. While Mrs Dursley was in the bathroom, Mr Dursley crept to the bedroom window and peered down into the front garden. The cat was still there. It was staring down Privet Drive as though it was waiting for something. 

Was he imagining things? Could all this have anything to do with the Potters? If it did… if it got out that they were related to a pair of – well, he didn’t think he could bear it. 

The Dursley got into bed. Mrs Dursley fell asleep quickly, but Mr Dursley lay awake, turning it all over in his mind. His last, comforting thought before he fell asleep was the even if the Potters were involved, there was no reason for them to come near him and Mrs Dursley. The Potters knew very well what he and Petunia thought about them and their kind… He couldn’t see how he and Petunia could get mixed up in anything that might be going on. He yawned and turned over. It couldn’t affect them…

How very wrong he was.

Mr Dursley might have been drifting into an uneasy sleep, but the cat on the wall outside was showing no sign of sleepiness. It was sitting as still as a stature, its eyes fixed unblinkingly on the far corner of Privet Drive. It didn’t so much as quiver when a car door slammed in the next street, nor when two owls swooped overhead. In fact, it was nearly midnight before the cat moved at all. 

A man appeared on the corner the cat had been watching, appeared so suddenly and silently you’d have thought he’d just popped out of the ground. The cat’s tail twitched, and its eyes narrowed. 

Nothing like this man had ever been seen in Privet Drive. He was tall, thin and very old, judging by the silver of his hair and beard, which were both long enough to tuck into his belt. He was wearing long robes, a purple cloak which swept the ground and high-heeled, buckled boots. His blue eyes were light, bright and sparkling behind half-moon spectacles and his nose was very long and crooked, as though it had been broken at least twice. This man’s name was Albus Dumbledore.

Albus Dumbledore didn’t seem to realise that he had just arrived in a street where everything from his name to his boots was unwelcome. He was busy rummaging in his cloak, looking for something. But he did seem to realise he was being watched, because he looked up suddenly at the cat, which was still staring at him from the other end of the street. For some reason, the sight of the cat seemed to amuse him. He chuckled and muttered, ‘I should have known.’ 

He had found what he was looking for in his inside pocket. It seemed to be a silver cigarette lighter. He flicked it open, held it up in the air and clicked it. The nearest street lamp went out with a little pop. He clicked it again–the next lamp flickered into darkness. Twelve times he clicked the Put-Outer, until the only lights left in the whole street were two tiny pinpricks in the distance, which were the eyes of the cat watching him. If anyone looked out of their window now, even beady-eyed Mrs Dursley, they wouldn’t be able to see anything that was happening down on the pavement. Dumbledore slipped the Put-Outer back inside his cloak and set off down the street towards number four, where he sat down on the wall next to the cat. He didn’t look at it, but after a moment he spoke to it. ‘

Fancy seeing you here, Professor McGonagall.’

He turned to smile at the tabby, but it had gone. Instead he was smiling at a rather severe-looking woman who was wearing square glasses exactly the shape of the markings the cat had had around its eyes. She, too, was wearing a cloak, an emerald one. Her black hair was drawn into a tight bun. She looked distinctly ruffled. 

‘How did you know it was me?’ she asked. 

‘My dear Professor, I’ve never seen a cat sit so stiffly.’ 

‘You’d be stiff if you’d been sitting on a brick wall all day,’ said Professor McGonagall. 

‘All day? When you could have been celebrating? I must have passed a dozen feasts and parties on my way here.’ 

Professor McGonagall sniffed angrily. 

‘Oh yes, everyone’s celebrating, all right,’ she said impatiently. ‘You’d think they’d be a bit more careful, but no–even the Muggles have noticed something’s going on. It was on their news.’ She jerked her head back at the Dursleys’ dark living-room window. ‘I heard it. Flocks of owls … shooting stars … Well, they’re not completely stupid. They were bound to notice something. Shooting stars down in Kent–I’ll bet that was Dedalus Diggle. He never had much sense.’ 

‘You can’t blame them,’ said Dumbledore gently. ‘We’ve had precious little to celebrate for eleven years.’ 

‘I know that,’ said Professor McGonagall irritably. ‘But that’s no reason to lose our heads. People are being downright careless, out on the streets in broad daylight, not even dressed in Muggle clothes, swapping rumours.’ 

She threw a sharp, sideways glance at Dumbledore here, as though hoping he was going to tell her something, but he didn’t, so she went on: ‘A fine thing it would be if, on the very day You-Know-Who seems to have disappeared at last, the Muggles found out about us all. I suppose he really has gone, Dumbledore?’ 

‘It certainly seems so,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We have much to be thankful for. Would you care for a sherbet lemon?’ ‘

A what?’ 

‘A sherbet lemon. They’re a kind of Muggle sweet I’m rather fond of.’ 

‘No, thank you,’ said Professor McGonagall coldly, as though she didn’t think this was the moment for sherbet lemons. ‘As I say, even if You-Know-Who has gone–’ 

‘My dear Professor, surely a sensible person like yourself can call him by his name? All this “You-Know-Who” nonsense–for eleven years I have been trying to persuade people to call him by his proper name: Voldemort.’ Professor McGonagall flinched, but Dumbledore, who was unsticking two sherbet lemons, seemed not to notice. ‘It all gets so confusing if we keep saying “You-Know-Who”.’ I have never seen any reason to be frightened of saying Voldemort’s name.’ 

‘I know you haven’t,’ said Professor McGonagall, sounding half-exasperated, half-admiring. ‘But you’re different. Everyone knows you’re the only one You-Know–oh, all right, Voldemort–was frightened of.’ 

‘You flatter me,’ said Dumbledore calmly. ‘Voldemort had powers I will never have.’ 

‘Only because you’re too–well–noble to use them.’ 

‘It’s lucky it’s dark. I haven’t blushed so much since Madam Pomfrey told me she liked my new earmuffs.’ 

Professor McGonagall shot a sharp look at Dumbledore and said, ‘The owls are nothing to the rumours that are flying around. You know what everyone’s saying? About why he’s disappeared? About what finally stopped him?’ 

It seemed that Professor McGonagall had reached the point she was most anxious to discuss, the real reason she had been waiting on a cold hard wall all day, for neither as a cat nor as a woman had she fixed Dumbledore with such a piercing stare as she did now. It was plain that whatever ‘everyone’ was saying, she was not going to believe it until Dumbledore told her it was true. Dumbledore, however, was choosing another sherbet lemon and did not answer. 

‘What they’re saying,’ she pressed on, ‘is that last night Voldemort turned up in Godric’s Hollow. He went to find the Potters. The rumour is that Lily and James Potter are–are–that they’re–dead.’ 

Dumbledore bowed his head. Professor McGonagall gasped. 

‘Lily and James … I can’t believe it … I didn’t want to believe it … Oh, Albus …’ 

Dumbledore reached out and patted her on the shoulder. ‘I know … I know …’ he said heavily. 

Professor McGonagall’s voice trembled as she went on. ‘That’s not all. They’re saying he tried to kill the Potters’ daughter, Harriet. But–he couldn’t. He couldn’t kill that little girl. No one knows why, or how, but they’re saying that when he couldn’t kill Harriet Potter, Voldemort’s power somehow broke–and that’s why he’s gone.’ 

Dumbledore nodded glumly.

‘It’s–it’s true?’ faltered Professor McGonagall. ‘After all he’s done … all the people he’s killed … he couldn’t kill a little girl? It’s just astounding … of all the things to stop him … but how in the name of heaven did Harriet survive?’ 

‘We can only guess,’ said Dumbledore. ‘We may never know.’ 

Professor McGonagall pulled out a lace handkerchief and dabbed at her eyes beneath her spectacles. Dumbledore gave a great sniff as he took a golden watch from his pocket and examined it. It was a very odd watch. It had twelve hands but no numbers; instead, little planets were moving around the edge. It must have made sense to Dumbledore, though, because he put it back in his pocket and said, ‘Hagrid’s late. I suppose it was he who told you I’d be here, by the way?’ 

‘Yes,’ said Professor McGonagall. ‘And I don’t suppose you’re going to tell me why you’re here, of all places?’ 

‘I’ve come to bring Harriet to his aunt and uncle. They’re the only family he has left now.’ 

‘You don’t mean–you can’t mean the people who live here?’ cried Professor McGonagall, jumping to her feet and pointing at number four. ‘Dumbledore–you can’t. I’ve been watching them all day. You couldn’t find two people who are less like us. And they’ve got this son–I saw him kicking his mother all the way up the street, screaming for sweets. Harriet Potter come and live here!’ 

‘It’s the best place for her,’ said Dumbledore firmly. ‘Her aunt and uncle will be able to explain everything to her when she’s older. I’ve written them a letter.’ 

‘A letter?’ repeated Professor McGonagall faintly, sitting back down on the wall. ‘Really, Dumbledore, you think you can explain all this in a letter? These people will never understand her! She’ll be famous–a legend–I wouldn’t be surprised if today was known as Harriet Potter Day in future–there will be books written about Harriet–every child in our world will know her name!’

‘Exactly,’ said Dumbledore, looking very seriously over the top of his half-moon glasses. ‘It would be enough to turn any girl’s head. Famous before she can walk and talk! Famous for something she won’t even remember! Can’t you see how much better off she’ll be, growing up away from all that until she’s ready to take it?’ 

Professor McGonagall opened her mouth, changed her mind, swallowed and then said, ‘Yes–yes, you’re right, of course. But how is the girl getting here, Dumbledore?’ She eyed his cloak suddenly as though she thought he might be hiding Harriet underneath it. 

‘Hagrid’s bringing her.’ 

‘You think it–wise–to trust Hagrid with something as important as this?’ 

‘I would trust Hagrid with my life,’ said Dumbledore. 

‘I’m not saying his heart isn’t in the right place,’ said Professor McGonagall grudgingly, ‘but you can’t pretend he’s not careless. He does tend to–what was that?’ 

A low rumbling sound had broken the silence around them. It grew steadily louder as they looked up and down the street for some sign of a headlight; it swelled to a roar as they both looked up at the sky–and a huge motorbike fell out of the air and landed on the road in front of them. 

If the motorbike was huge, it was nothing to the man sitting astride it. He was almost twice as tall as a normal man and at least five times as wide. He looked simply too big to be allowed, and so wild–long tangles of bushy black hair and beard hid most of his face, he had hands the size of dustbin lids and his feet in their leather boots were like baby dolphins. In his vast, muscular arms he was holding a bundle of blankets.

‘Hagrid,’ said Dumbledore, sounding relieved. ‘At last. And where did you get that motorbike?’ 

‘Borrowed it, Professor Dumbledore, sir,’ said the giant, climbing carefully off the motorbike as he spoke. ‘Young Sirius Black lent it me. I’ve got him, sir.’ 

‘No problems, were there?’ 

‘No, sir–house was almost destroyed but I got her out all right before the Muggles started swarmin’ around. She fell asleep as we was flyin’ over Bristol.’ 

Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall bent forward over the bundle of blankets. Inside, just visible, was a baby girl, fast asleep. Under a tuft of jet-black hair over her forehead they could see a curiously shaped cut, like a bolt of lightning. 

‘Is that where–?’ whispered Professor McGonagall. 

‘Yes,’ said Dumbledore. ‘She’ll have that scar for ever.’ 

‘Couldn’t you do something about it, Dumbledore?’ 

‘Even if I could, I wouldn’t. Scars can come in useful. I have one myself above my left knee which is a perfect map of the London Underground. Well–give her here, Hagrid – we’d better get this over with.’ 

Dumbledore took Harriet in his arms and turned towards the Dursleys’ house. 

‘Could I–could I say goodbye to her, sir?’ asked Hagrid. 

He bent his great, shaggy head over Harriet and gave her what must have been a very scratchy, whiskery kiss. Then, suddenly, Hagrid let out a howl like a wounded dog. 

‘Shhh!’ hissed Professor McGonagall. ‘You’ll wake the Muggles!’ 

‘S-s-sorry,’ sobbed Hagrid, taking out a large spotted handkerchief and burying his face in it. ‘But I c-c-can’t stand it–Lily an’ James dead–an’ poor little Harriet off ter live with Muggles–’

‘Yes, yes, it’s all very sad, but get a grip on yourself, Hagrid, or we’ll be found,’ Professor McGonagall whispered, patting Hagrid gingerly on the arm as Dumbledore stepped over the low garden wall and walked to the front door. He laid Harriet gently on the doorstep, took a letter out of his cloak, tucked it inside Harriet’s blankets and then came back to the other two. For a full minute the three of them stood and looked at the little bundle; Hagrid’s shoulders shook, Professor McGonagall blinked furiously and the twinkling light that usually shone from Dumbledore’s eyes seemed to have gone out. 

‘Well,’ said Dumbledore finally, ‘that’s that. We’ve no business staying here. We may as well go and join the celebrations.’ 

‘Yeah,’ said Hagrid in a very muffled voice. ‘I’d best get this bike away. G’night, Professor McGonagall–Professor Dumbledore, sir.’ 

Wiping his streaming eyes on his jacket sleeve, Hagrid swung himself on to the motorbike and kicked the engine into life; with a roar it rose into the air and off into the night. 

‘I shall see you soon, I expect, Professor McGonagall,’ said Dumbledore, nodding to her. Professor McGonagall blew her nose in reply. 

Dumbledore turned and walked back down the street. On the corner he stopped and took out the silver Put-Outer. He clicked it once and twelve balls of light sped back to their street lamps so that Privet Drive glowed suddenly orange and he could make out a tabby cat slinking around the corner at the other end of the street. He could just see the bundle of blankets on the step of number four. 

‘Good luck, Harriet,’ he murmured. He turned on his heel and with a swish of his cloak he was gone.

A breeze ruffled the neat hedges of Privet Drive, which lay silent and tidy under the inky sky, the very last place you would expect astonishing things to happen. Harriet Potter rolled over inside her blankets without waking up. One small hand closed on the letter beside her and she slept on, not knowing she was special, not knowing she was famous, not knowing she would be woken in a few hours’ time by Mrs Dursley’s scream as she opened the front door to put out the milk bottles, nor that she would spend the next few weeks being prodded and pinched by her cousin Dudley … She couldn’t know that at this very moment, people meeting in secret all over the country were holding up their glasses and saying in hushed voices: ‘To Harriet Potter – the girl who lived!’


	2. The Vanishing Glass

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to everyone who gave me kudos on the last chapter. I know it was pretty boring as harry hasn't been introduced properly yet but chapter 3 is when it picks up.

Nearly ten years had passed since the Dursleys had woken up to find their niece on the front step, but Privet Drive had hardly changed at all. The sun rose on the same tidy front gardens and lit up the brass number four on the Dursleys’ front door; it crept into their living-room, which was almost exactly the same as it had been on the night when Mr Dursley had seen that fateful news report about the owls. Only the photographs on the mantelpiece really showed how much time had passed. Ten years ago, there had been lots of pictures of what looked like a large pink beach ball wearing different-coloured bobble hats–but Dudley Dursley was no longer a baby, and now the photographs showed a large, blond boy riding his first bicycle, on a roundabout at the fair, playing a computer game with his father, being hugged and kissed by his mother. The room held no sign at all that girl lived in the house, too. 

Yet Harriet Potter was still there, asleep at the moment, but not for long. Her Aunt Petunia was awake, and it was her shrill voice which made the first noise of the day. 

‘Up! Get up! Now!’ 

Harriet woke with a start. Her aunt rapped on the door again. 

‘Up!’ she screeched. Harriet heard her walking towards the kitchen and then the sound of the frying pan being put on the cooker. She rolled on to her back and tried to remember the dream she had been having. It had been a good one. There had been a flying motorbike in it. She had a funny feeling she’d had the same dream before. 

Her aunt was back outside the door. 

‘Are you up yet?’ she demanded. 

‘Nearly,’ said Harriet. 

‘Well, get a move on, I want you to look after the bacon. And don’t you dare let it burn, I want everything perfect on Duddy’s birthday.’ 

Harriet groaned. 

‘What did you say?’ her aunt snapped through the door. 

‘Nothing, nothing …’ 

Dudley’s birthday–how could she have forgotten? Harriet got slowly out of bed and started looking for socks. She found a pair under his bed and, after pulling a spider off one of them, put them on. Harriet was used to spiders, because the cupboard under the stairs was full of them, and that was where she slept. 

When she was dressed, she went down the hall into the kitchen. The table was almost hidden beneath all Dudley’s birthday presents. It looked as though Dudley had got the new computer he wanted, not to mention the second television and the racing bike. Exactly why Dudley wanted a racing bike was a mystery to Harriet, as Dudley was very fat and hated exercise–unless of course it involved punching somebody. Dudley’s favourite punch-bag was Harriet, but he couldn’t often catch her. Harriet didn’t look it, but she was very fast. 

Perhaps it had something to do with living in a dark cupboard, but Harriet had always been small and skinny for her age. She looked even smaller and skinnier than she really was because all she had to wear were old clothes of Dudley’s and Dudley was about four times bigger than he was. Harriet had a thin face, knobbly knees, black hair and bright-green eyes. She wore round glasses held together with a lot of Sellotape because of all the times Dudley had punched her on the nose. The only thing Harriet liked about her own appearance was a very thin scar on her forehead which was shaped like a bolt of lightning. She had had it as long as she could remember and the first question, she could ever remember asking her Aunt Petunia was how she had got it. 

‘In the car crash when your parents died,’ she had said. ‘And don’t ask questions.’ 

Don’t ask questions–that was the first rule for a quiet life with the Dursleys. 

Uncle Vernon entered the kitchen as Harriet was turning over the bacon. 

‘Comb your hair!’ he barked, by way of a morning greeting. 

About once a week, Uncle Vernon looked over the top of his newspaper and shouted that Harriet needed a to grow her hair out. Harriet must have had the least amount of haircuts than the rest of the girls in her class put together, but it made no difference, her hair simply grew that way–all over the place and refused to grow longer. 

Harriet was frying eggs by the time Dudley arrived in the kitchen with his mother. Dudley looked a lot like Uncle Vernon. He had a large, pink face, not much neck, small, watery blue eyes and thick, blond hair that lay smoothly on his thick, fat head. Aunt Petunia often said that Dudley looked like a baby angel–Harriet often said that Dudley looked like a pig in a wig. 

Harriet put the plates of egg and bacon on the table, which was difficult as there wasn’t much room. Dudley, meanwhile, was counting his presents. His face fell. 

‘Thirty-six,’ he said, looking up at his mother and father. ‘That’s two less than last year.’ 

‘Darling, you haven’t counted Auntie Marge’s present, see, it’s here under this big one from Mummy and Daddy.’ 

‘All right, thirty-seven then,’ said Dudley, going red in the face. Harriet, who could see a huge Dudley tantrum coming on, began wolfing down her bacon as fast as possible in case Dudley turned the table over. 

Aunt Petunia obviously scented danger too, because she said quickly, ‘And we’ll buy you another two presents while we’re out today. How’s that, popkin? Two more presents. Is that all right?’ 

Dudley thought for a moment. It looked like hard work. Finally, he said slowly, ‘So I’ll have thirty … thirty …’ 

‘Thirty-nine, sweetums,’ said Aunt Petunia.

‘Oh.’ Dudley sat down heavily and grabbed the nearest parcel. ‘All right then.’ 

Uncle Vernon chuckled. 

‘Little tyke wants his money’s worth, just like his father. Atta boy, Dudley!’ He ruffled Dudley’s hair. 

At that moment the telephone rang and Aunt Petunia went to answer it while Harriet and Uncle Vernon watched Dudley unwrap the racing bike, a cine-camera, a remote-control aeroplane, sixteen new computer games and a video recorder. He was ripping the paper off a gold wristwatch when Aunt Petunia came back from the telephone, looking both angry and worried. 

‘Bad news, Vernon,’ she said. ‘Mrs Figg’s broken her leg. She can’t take her.’ She jerked her head in Harriet’s direction. 

Dudley’s mouth fell open in horror, but Harriet’s heart gave a leap. Every year on Dudley’s birthday his parents took him and a friend out for the day, to adventure parks, hamburger bars or the cinema. Every year, Harriet was left behind with Mrs Figg, a mad old lady who lived two streets away. Harriet hated it there. The whole house smelled of cabbage and Mrs Figg made her look at photographs of all the cats she’d ever owned. 

‘Now what?’ said Aunt Petunia, looking furiously at Harriet as though she’d planned this. Harriet knew she ought to feel sorry that Mrs Figg had broken her leg, but it wasn’t easy when she reminded himself it would be a whole year before she had to look at Tibbles, Snowy, Mr Paws and Tufty again. 

‘We could phone Marge,’ Uncle Vernon suggested. 

‘Don’t be silly, Vernon, she hates the girl.’ 

The Dursleys often spoke about Harriet like this, as though she wasn’t there–or rather, as though she was something very nasty that couldn’t understand them, like a slug. 

‘What about what’s-her-name, your friend–Yvonne?’ 

‘On holiday in Majorca,’ snapped Aunt Petunia.  
‘You could just leave me here,’ Harriet put in hopefully (she’d be able to watch what she wanted on television for a change and maybe even have a go on Dudley’s computer). 

Aunt Petunia looked as though she’d just swallowed a lemon. 

‘And come back and find the house in ruins?’ she snarled. 

‘I won’t blow up the house,’ said Harriet, but they weren’t listening. 

‘I suppose we could take her to the zoo,’ said Aunt Petunia slowly, ‘… and leave him in the car …’ 

‘That car’s new, she’s not sitting in it alone …’ 

Dudley began to cry loudly. In fact, he wasn’t really crying, it had been years since he’d really cried, but he knew that if he screwed up his face and wailed, his mother would give him anything he wanted. 

‘Dinky Duddydums, don’t cry, Mummy won’t let her spoil your special day!’ she cried, flinging her arms around him. 

‘I … don’t … want … her … t-t-to come!’ Dudley yelled between huge pretend sobs. ‘She always sp-spoils everything!’ He shot Harriet a nasty grin through the gap in his mother’s arms. 

Just then, the doorbell rang–‘Oh, Good Lord, they’re here!’ said Aunt Petunia frantically–and a moment later, Dudley’s best friend, Piers Polkiss, walked in with his mother. Piers was a scrawny boy with a face like a rat. He was usually the one who held people’s arms behind their backs while Dudley hit them. Dudley stopped pretending to cry at once. 

Half an hour later, Harriet, who couldn’t believe her luck, was sitting in the back of the Dursleys’ car with Piers and Dudley, on the way to the zoo for the first time in her life. Her aunt and uncle hadn’t been able to think of anything else to do with her, but before they’d left, Uncle Vernon had taken Harriet aside. 

‘I’m warning you,’ he had said, putting his large purple face right up close to Harriet’s, ‘I’m warning you now, girl–any funny business, anything at all–and you’ll be in that cupboard from now until Christmas.’ 

‘I’m not going to do anything,’ said Harriet, ‘honestly …’ 

But Uncle Vernon didn’t believe her. No one ever did. 

The problem was, strange things often happened around Harriet and it was just no good telling the Dursleys she didn’t make them happen. 

Once, Aunt Petunia, tired of Harriet coming back from the hairdresser’s looking as though she had more taken off than she was meant to, had locked her in her cupboard until it grew. Dudley had laughed himself silly at Harriet, who spent many a sleepless night imagining school the next day, where she was already laughed at for her baggy clothes and Sellotaped glasses. Once she was allowed back out her cupboard, however, she had got up to find her hair hadn’t grown at all. She had been given a week in her cupboard for this, even though she had tried to explain that she hadn’t sneaked scissors in there to cut it.

Another time, Aunt Petunia had been trying to force her into a bunch of girl’s clothes (bright pink clothes and dresses). The harder she tried to pull them over her head, the smaller it seemed to become, until finally it might have fitted a glove puppet, but certainly wouldn’t fit Harriet. Aunt Petunia had decided it must have shrunk in the wash and, to her great relief, Harriet wasn’t punished. 

On the other hand, she’d got into terrible trouble for being found on the roof of the school kitchens. Dudley’s gang had been chasing her as usual when, as much to Harriet’s surprise as anyone else’s, there she was sitting on the chimney. The Dursleys had received a very angry letter from Harriet’s headmistress telling them Harriet had been climbing school buildings. But all she’d tried to do (as she shouted at Uncle Vernon through the locked door of her cupboard) was jump behind the big bins outside the kitchen doors. Harriet supposed that the wind must have caught her in mid-jump. 

But today, nothing was going to go wrong. 

It was even worth being with Dudley and Piers to be spending the day somewhere that wasn’t school, her cupboard or Mrs Figg’s cabbage-smelling living-room. 

While he drove, Uncle Vernon complained to Aunt Petunia. He liked to complain about things: people at work, Harriet, the council, Harriet, the bank and Harriet were just a few of his favourite subjects. This morning, it was motorbikes. 

‘ … roaring along like maniacs, the young hoodlums,’ he said, as a motorbike overtook them.

‘I had a dream about a motorbike,’ said Harriet, remembering suddenly. ‘It was flying.’ 

Uncle Vernon nearly crashed into the car in front. He turned right around in his seat and yelled at Harriet, his face like a gigantic beetroot with a moustache, ‘MOTORBIKES DON’T FLY!’ 

Dudley and Piers sniggered. 

‘I know they don’t,’ said Harriet. ‘It was only a dream.’ 

But she wished she hadn’t said anything. If there was one thing the Dursleys hated even more than her asking questions, it was her talking about anything acting in a way it shouldn’t, no matter if it was in a dream or even a cartoon–they seemed to think she might get dangerous ideas. 

It was a very sunny Saturday and the zoo was crowded with families. The Dursleys bought Dudley and Piers large chocolate ice-creams at the entrance and then, because the smiling lady in the van had asked Harriet what she wanted before they could hurry her away, they bought her a cheap lemon ice lolly. It wasn’t bad either, Harriet thought, licking it as they watched a gorilla scratching its head and looking remarkably like Dudley, except that it wasn’t blond. 

Harriet had the best morning she’d had in a long time. She was careful to walk a little way apart from the Dursleys so that Dudley and Piers, who were starting to get bored with the animals by lunch-time, wouldn’t fall back on their favourite hobby of hitting her. They ate in the zoo restaurant and when Dudley had a tantrum because his knickerbocker glory wasn’t big enough, Uncle Vernon bought him another one and Harriet was allowed to finish the first. 

Harriet felt, afterwards, that she should have known it was all too good to last. 

After lunch they went to the reptile house. It was cool and dark in here, with lit windows all along the walls. Behind the glass, all sorts of lizards and snakes were crawling and slithering over bits of wood and stone. Dudley and Piers wanted to see huge, poisonous cobras and thick, man-crushing pythons. Dudley quickly found the largest snake in the place. It could have wrapped its body twice around Uncle Vernon’s car and crushed it into a dustbin–but at the moment it didn’t look in the mood. In fact, it was fast asleep. 

Dudley stood with his nose pressed against the glass, staring at the glistening brown coils.

‘Make it move,’ he whined at his father. Uncle Vernon tapped on the glass, but the snake didn’t budge. 

‘Do it again,’ Dudley ordered. Uncle Vernon rapped the glass smartly with his knuckles, but the snake just snoozed on. 

‘This is boring,’ Dudley moaned. He shuffled away. 

Harriet moved in front of the tank and looked intently at the snake. She wouldn’t have been surprised if it had died of boredom itself–no company except stupid people drumming their fingers on the glass trying to disturb it all day long. It was worse than having a cupboard as a bedroom, where the only visitor was Aunt Petunia hammering on the door to wake you up–at least he got to visit the rest of the house. 

The snake suddenly opened its beady eyes. Slowly, very slowly, it raised its head until its eyes were on a level with Harriet’s. 

It winked. 

Harriet stared. Then she looked quickly around to see if anyone was watching. They weren’t. She looked back at the snake and winked, too. 

The snake jerked its head towards Uncle Vernon and Dudley, then raised its eyes to the ceiling. It gave Harry a look that said quite plainly: ‘I get that all the time.’ 

‘I know,’ Harriet murmured through the glass, though she wasn’t sure the snake could hear him. ‘It must be really annoying.’ 

The snake nodded vigorously. 

‘Where do you come from, anyway?’ Harriet asked. 

The snake jabbed its tail at a little sign next to the glass. Harriet peered at it. 

Boa Constrictor, Brazil. 

‘Was it nice there?’ 

The boa constrictor jabbed its tail at the sign again and Harriet read on: This specimen was bred in the zoo. ‘Oh, I see–so you’ve never been to Brazil?’ 

As the snake shook its head, a deafening shout behind Harriet made both of them jump. 

‘DUDLEY! MR DURSLEY! COME AND LOOK AT THIS SNAKE! YOU WON’T BELIEVE WHAT IT’S DOING!’ 

Dudley came waddling towards them as fast as he could. 

‘Out of the way, you,’ he said, punching Harriet in the ribs. Caught by surprise, Harriet fell hard on the concrete floor. What came next happened so fast no one saw how it happened–one second, Piers and Dudley were leaning right up close to the glass, the next, they had leapt back with howls of horror. 

Harriet sat up and gasped; the glass front of the boa constrictor’s tank had vanished. The great snake was uncoiling itself rapidly, slithering out on to the floor–people throughout the reptile house screamed and started running for the exits. 

As the snake slid swiftly past her, Harriet could have sworn a low, hissing voice said, ‘Brazil, here I come … Thanksss, amigo.’ 

The keeper of the reptile house was in shock. 

‘But the glass,’ he kept saying, ‘where did the glass go?’ 

The zoo director himself made Aunt Petunia a cup of strong sweet tea while he apologised over and over again. Piers and Dudley could only gibber. As far as Harriet had seen, the snake hadn’t done anything except snap playfully at their heels as it passed, but by the time they were all back in Uncle Vernon’s car, Dudley was telling them how it had nearly bitten off his leg, while Piers was swearing it had tried to squeeze him to death. But worst of all, for Harriet at least, was Piers calming down enough to say, ‘Harriet was talking to it, weren’t you, Harriet?’

Uncle Vernon waited until Piers was safely out of the house before starting on Harriet. He was so angry he could hardly speak. He managed to say, ‘Go–cupboard–stay–no meals,’ before he collapsed into a chair and Aunt Petunia had to run and get him a large brandy.

*

Harriet lay in her dark cupboard much later, wishing she had a watch. She didn’t know what time it was and she couldn’t be sure the Dursleys were asleep yet. Until they were, she couldn’t risk sneaking to the kitchen for some food. 

She’d lived with the Dursleys almost ten years, ten miserable years, as long as she could remember, ever since she’d been a baby and her parents had died in that car crash. She couldn’t remember being in the car when her parents had died. Sometimes, when she strained her memory during long hours in his cupboard, she came up with a strange vision: a blinding flash of green light and a burning pain on her forehead. This, she supposed, was the crash, though she couldn’t imagine where all the green light came from. She couldn’t remember her parents at all. Her aunt and uncle never spoke about them, and of course she was forbidden to ask questions. There were no photographs of them in the house. 

When she had been younger, Harriet had dreamed and dreamed of some unknown relation coming to take her away, but it had never happened; the Dursleys were her only family. Yet sometimes she thought (or maybe hoped) that strangers in the street seemed to know her. Very strange strangers they were, too. A tiny man in a violet top hat had bowed to her once while out shopping with Aunt Petunia and Dudley. After asking Harriet furiously if she knew the man, Aunt Petunia had rushed them out of the shop without buying anything. A wild-looking old woman dressed all in green had waved merrily at her once on a bus. A bald man in a very long purple coat had actually shaken her hand in the street the other day and then walked away without a word. The weirdest thing about all these people was the way they seemed to vanish the second Harriet tried to get a closer look. 

At school, Harriet had no one. Everybody knew that Dudley’s gang hated that odd Harriet Potter in her baggy old clothes and broken glasses, and nobody liked to disagree with Dudley’s gang.


	3. The Letters from No One

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys for the nice comments I've received on the first two chapters of this rewrite. The next chapter after this might take a while to get up but I'll try to get it up for you guys as soon as possible. So I hope you enjoy this chapter.

The escape of the Brazilian boa constrictor earned Harriet her longest-ever punishment. By the time she was allowed out of her cupboard again, the summer holidays had started and Dudley had already broken his new cine-camera, crashed his remote-control aeroplane and, first time on his racing bike, knocked down old Mrs Figg as she crossed Privet Drive on her crutches. 

Harriet was glad school was over, but there was no escaping Dudley’s gang, who visited the house every single day. Piers, Dennis, Malcolm and Gordon were all big and stupid, but as Dudley was the biggest and stupidest of the lot, he was the leader. The rest of them were all quite happy to join in Dudley’s favourite sport: Harriet-hunting. 

This was why Harriet spent as much time as possible out of the house, wandering around and thinking about the end of the holidays, where she could see a tiny ray of hope. When September came, she would be going off to secondary school and, for the first time in her life, she wouldn’t be with Dudley. Dudley had a place at Uncle Vernon’s old school, Smeltings. Piers Polkiss was going there, too. Harriet, on the other hand, was going to Stonewall High, the local comprehensive. Dudley thought this was very funny. 

‘They stuff people’s heads down the toilet first day at Stonewall,’ he told Harriet. ‘Want to come upstairs and practise?’ 

‘No thanks,’ said Harriet. ‘The poor toilet’s never had anything as horrible as your head down it–it might be sick.’ Then she ran, before Dudley could work out what she’d said. 

One day in July, Aunt Petunia took Dudley to London to buy his Smeltings uniform, leaving Harriet at Mrs Figg’s. Mrs Figg wasn’t as bad as usual. It turned out she’d broken her leg tripping over one of her cats and she didn’t seem quite as fond of them as before. She let Harriet watch television and gave her a bit of chocolate cake that tasted as though she’d had it for several years. 

That evening, Dudley paraded around the living-room for the family in his brand-new uniform. Smeltings boys wore maroon tailcoats, orange knickerbockers and flat straw hats called boaters. They also carried knobbly sticks, used for hitting each other while the teachers weren’t looking. This was supposed to be good training for later life. 

As she looked at Dudley in his new knickerbockers, Uncle Vernon said gruffly that it was the proudest moment of his life. Aunt Petunia burst into tears and said she couldn’t believe it was her Ickle Dudleykins, he looked so handsome and grown-up. Harriet didn’t trust herself to speak. She thought two of his ribs might already have cracked from trying not to laugh.

There was a horrible smell in the kitchen next morning when Harriet went in for breakfast. It seemed to be coming from a large metal tub in the sink. She went to have a look. The tub was full of what looked like dirty rags swimming in grey water. 

‘What’s this?’ she asked Aunt Petunia. Her lips tightened as they always did if he dared to ask a question. 

‘Your new school uniform,’ she said. 

Harriet looked in the bowl again. 

‘Oh,’ she said. ‘I didn’t realise it had to be so wet.’ 

‘Don’t be stupid,’ snapped Aunt Petunia. ‘I’m dyeing some of Dudley’s old things grey for you. It’ll look just like everyone else’s when I’ve finished.’ 

Harriet seriously doubted this but thought it best not to argue. She sat down at the table and tried not to think about how she was going to look on his first day at Stonewall High–like she was wearing bits of old elephant skin, probably. 

Dudley and Uncle Vernon came in, both with wrinkled noses because of the smell from Harriet’s new uniform. Uncle Vernon opened his newspaper as usual and Dudley banged his Smeltings stick, which he carried everywhere, on the table. 

They heard the click of the letter-box and flop of letters on the doormat. 

‘Get the post, Dudley,’ said Uncle Vernon from behind his paper. 

‘Make Harriet get it.’ 

‘Get the post, Harriet.’ 

‘Make Dudley get it.’ 

‘Poke her with your Smeltings stick, Dudley.’ 

Harriet dodged the Smeltings stick and went to get the post. Three things lay on the doormat: a postcard from Uncle Vernon’s sister Marge, who was holidaying on the Isle of Wight, a brown envelope that looked like a bill and–a letter for Harriet. 

Harriet picked it up and stared at it, her heart twanging like a giant elastic band. No one, ever, in her whole life, had written to her. Who would? She had no friends, no other relatives–she didn’t belong to the library, so she’d never even got rude notes asking for books back. Yet here it was, a letter, addressed so plainly there could be no mistake: 

Mr H. Potter   
The Cupboard under the Stairs   
4 Privet Drive   
Little Whinging   
Surrey 

Mr H. Potter. Harriet was frozen at the door. She hadn’t told anyone that she didn’t feel like a girl. No one would understand that but they knew to send it under Mr H. Potter. No one even knew she preferred to go by Harry. She was still struggling to refer to herself by the pronouns and name she preferred. 

The envelope was thick and heavy, made of yellowish parchment, and the address was written in emerald-green ink. There was no stamp. 

Turning the envelope over, her hand trembling, Harriet saw a purple wax seal bearing a coat of arms; a lion, an eagle, a badger and a snake surrounding a large letter ‘H’. 

‘Hurry up, girl!’ shouted Uncle Vernon from the kitchen. ‘What are you doing, checking for letter-bombs?’ He chuckled at his own joke. 

Harriet went back to the kitchen, still staring at her letter. She handed Uncle Vernon the bill and the postcard, sat down and slowly began to open the yellow envelope. 

Uncle Vernon ripped open the bill, snorted in disgust and flipped over the postcard.

‘Marge’s ill,’ he informed Aunt Petunia. ‘Ate a funny whelk …’ 

‘Dad!’ said Dudley suddenly. ‘Dad, Harriet’s got something!’ 

Harriet was on the point of unfolding her letter, which was written on the same heavy parchment as the envelope, when it was jerked sharply out of her hand by Uncle Vernon. 

‘That’s mine!’ said Harriet, trying to snatch it back. 

‘Who’d be writing to you? And why does it say Mr H. Potter? Everyone knows you’re a girl!’ sneered Uncle Vernon, shaking the letter open with one hand and glancing at it. His face went from red to green faster than a set of traffic lights. And it didn’t stop there. Within seconds it was the greyish white of old porridge. 

‘P-P-Petunia!’ he gasped. 

Dudley tried to grab the letter to read it, but Uncle Vernon held it high out of his reach. Aunt Petunia took it curiously and read the first line. For a moment it looked as though she might faint. She clutched her throat and made a choking noise. 

‘Vernon! Oh my goodness–Vernon!’ 

They stared at each other, seeming to have forgotten that Harriet and Dudley were still in the room. Dudley wasn’t used to being ignored. He gave his father a sharp tap on the head with his Smeltings stick. 

‘I want to read that letter,’ he said loudly. 

‘I want to read it,’ said Harriet furiously, ‘as it’s mine. ’ 

‘Get out, both of you,’ croaked Uncle Vernon, stuffing the letter back inside its envelope. 

Harriet didn’t move. 

‘I WANT MY LETTER!’ she shouted. 

‘Let me see it!’ demanded Dudley. 

‘OUT!’ roared Uncle Vernon, and he took both Harriet and Dudley by the scruffs of their necks and threw them into the hall, slamming the kitchen door behind them. Harriet and Dudley promptly had a furious but silent fight over who would listen at the keyhole; Dudley won, so Harriet, her glasses dangling from one ear, lay flat on her stomach to listen at the crack between door and floor. 

‘Vernon,’ Aunt Petunia was saying in a quivering voice, ‘look at the address–how could they possibly know where she sleeps? You don’t think they’re watching the house? Why does it say Mr H Potter on it?’ 

‘Watching–spying–might be following us,’ muttered Uncle Vernon wildly. 

‘But what should we do, Vernon? Should we write back? Tell them we don’t want–’ 

Harriet could see Uncle Vernon’s shiny black shoes pacing up and down the kitchen. 

‘No,’ he said finally. ‘No, we’ll ignore it. If they don’t get an answer … yes, that’s best … we won’t do anything …’ 

‘But–’ 

‘I’m not having one in the house, Petunia! Didn’t we swear when we took her in, we’d stamp out that dangerous nonsense?’ 

That evening when he got back from work, Uncle Vernon did something he’d never done before; he visited Harriet in her cupboard. 

‘Where’s my letter?’ said Harriet, the moment Uncle Vernon had squeezed through the door. ‘Who’s writing to me?’ 

‘No one. It was addressed to you by mistake everyone knows no Mr H Potter lives here,’ said Uncle Vernon shortly. ‘I have burned it.’ 

‘It was not a mistake,’ said Harriet angrily. ‘It had my cupboard on it.’ 

‘SILENCE!’ yelled Uncle Vernon, and a couple of spiders fell from the ceiling. He took a few deep breaths and then forced his face into a smile, which looked quite painful. 

‘Er–yes, Harriet–about this cupboard. Your aunt and I have been thinking … you’re really getting a bit big for it … we think it might be nice if you moved into Dudley’s second bedroom.’ 

‘Why?’ said Harriet. 

‘Don’t ask questions!’ snapped her uncle. ‘Take this stuff upstairs, now.’ 

The Dursleys’ house had four bedrooms: one for Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia, one for visitors (usually Uncle Vernon’s sister, Marge), one where Dudley slept and one where Dudley kept all the toys and things that wouldn’t fit into his first bedroom. It only took Harriet one trip upstairs to move everything she owned from the cupboard to this room. She sat down on the bed and stared around her. Nearly everything in here was broken. The month-old cine-camera was lying on top of a small, working tank Dudley had once driven over next door’s dog; in the corner was Dudley’s first-ever television set, which he’d put his foot through when his favourite programme had been cancelled; there was a large bird-cage which had once held a parrot that Dudley had swapped at school for a real air-rifle, which was up on a shelf with the end all bent because Dudley had sat on it. Other shelves were full of books. They were the only things in the room that looked as though they’d never been touched.

From downstairs came the sound of Dudley bawling at his mother: ‘I don’t want her in there… I need that room… make her get out…’

Harriet sighed and stretched out on the bed. Yesterday she’d had given anything to be up here. Today she’d rather be back in her cupboard with that letter than up here without it.

Next morning at breakfast, everyone was rather quiet. Dudley was in shock. He’d screamed, whacked his father with his Smeltings stick, been sick on purpose, kicked his mother and thrown his tortoise through the greenhouse roof and he still didn’t have his room back. Harriet was thinking about this time yesterday and bitterly wishing she’d opened the letter in the hall. Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia kept looking at each other darkly.

When the post arrived, Uncle Vernon, who seemed to be trying to be nice to Harriet, made Dudley go and get it. They heard him hanging things with his Smeltings stick all the way down the hall. Then he shouted, ‘There’s another one! Mr H. Potter, The Smallest Bedroom, 4 Privet Drive-‘

With a strangled cry, Uncle Vernon leapt from his seat and ran down the hall, Harriet right behind him. Uncle Vernon had to wrestle Dudley to the ground to get the letter from him, which was made difficult by the fact Harriet had grabbed Uncle Vernon around the neck from behind. After a minute of confused fighting, in which everyone got hit a lot by the Smeltings stick, Uncle Vernon straightened up, gasping for breath, with Harriet’s letter clutched in his hand.

‘Go to your cupboard – I mean, your bedroom,’ he wheezed at Harriet. ‘Dudley – go – just go.’

Harriet walked around and around her new room. Someone knew she had moved out of her cupboard; they knew about her preferred name and they seemed to know that she hadn’t received her first letter. Surely that meant they’d try again. And this time she’d make sure they didn’t fail. She had a plan.

*

The repaired alarm clock rang at six o’clock the next morning. Harriet turned it off quickly and dressed silently. She mustn’t wake the Dursleys. She stole downstairs without turning on any of the lights.

She was going to wait for the postman on the corner of Privet Drive and get the letters for number four first. Her heart hammered as she crept across the dark hall towards the front door – 

‘AAAARRRGH!’

Harriet leapt into the air – she’d trodden on something big and squashy on the doormat – something alive!

Lights clicked on upstairs and to her horror Harriet realised that the big squashy something had been his uncle’s face. Uncle Vernon had been lying at the foot of the front door in a sleeping bag, clearly making sure that Harriet didn’t do exactly what she’d been trying to do. He shouted at Harriet for about half an hour and then told her to go and make a cup of tea. Harriet shuffled miserably off into the kitchen, and by the time she got back, the post had arrived, right into Uncle Vernon’s lap. Harry could see three letters addressed in green ink.

‘I want– ‘she began, but Uncle Vernon was tearing the letters into pieces before her eyes.

Uncle Vernon didn’t go to work that day. He stayed at home and nailed up the letter-box.

‘See,’ he explained to Aunt Petunia through a mouthful of nails, ‘if they can’t deliver them, they’ll just give up.’

‘I’m not sure that’ll work, Vernon.’

‘Oh, these people’s minds work in strange ways, Petunia, they’re not like you and me,’ said Uncle Vernon, trying to knock a nail with the piece of fruit cake Aunt Petunia had just brought him.

*

On Friday, no fewer than twelve letters arrived for Harriet. As they couldn’t go through the letter-box they had been pushed under the door, slotted through the sides and a few even forced through the small window in the downstairs toilet.

Uncle Vernon stayed at home again. After burning all the letters, he got out a hammer and nails and boarded up the cracks around the front and back doors so no one could go out. He hummed ‘Tiptoe through the Tulips’ as he worked and jumped at small noises.

*

On Saturday, things began to get out of hand. Twenty-four letters to Harriet found their way into the house, rolled up and hidden inside each of the two dozen eggs that their very confused milkman had handed Aunt Petunia through the living-room window. While Uncle Vernon made furious telephone calls to the post office and the dairy trying to find someone to complain to, Aunt Petunia shredded the letters in her food mixer.

‘Who on earth wants to talk to you this badly? And what is it with the Mr H. Potter?’ Dudley asked Harriet in amazement.

*

On Sunday morning, Uncle Vernon sat down at the breakfast table looking tired and rather ill, but happy.

‘No post on Sundays,’ he reminded them happily as he spread marmalade on his newspaper, ‘no damn letters today- ‘

Something came whizzing down the kitchen chimney as he spoke and caught him sharply on the back of the head. Next moment, thirty or forty letters came pelting out of the fireplace like bullets. The Dursleys ducked, but Harriet leapt into the air trying to catch one – 

‘Out! OUT!’

Uncle Vernon seized Harriet around the waist and threw him into the hall. When Aunt Petunia and Dudley had run out with their arms over their faces, Uncle Vernon slammed the door shut. They could hear the letters still streaming into the room, bouncing off the walls and floor.

‘That does it,’ said Uncle Vernon, trying to speak calmly but pulling great tuffs out of his moustache at the same time. ‘I want you all back here in five minutes, ready to leave. We’re going away. Just pack some clothes. No arguments!’

He looked so dangerous with half his moustache missing that no one dared argue. Ten minutes later they had wrenched their way through the boarded-up doors and were in the car, speeding towards the motorway. Dudley was sniffling in the back seat; his father had hit him round the head for holding them up while he tried to pack his television, video and computer in his sports bag. 

They drove. And they drove. Even Aunt Petunia didn’t dare ask where they were going. Every now and then Uncle Vernon would take a sharp turning and drive in the opposite direction for a while.

‘Shake ‘em off… shake ‘em off,’ he would mutter whenever he did this. 

They didn’t stop to eat or drink all day. By nightfall Dudley was howling. He’d never had such a bad day in his life. He was hungry, he’d missed five television programmes he’d wanted to see, and he’d never gone so long without blowing up an alien on his computer. 

Uncle Vernon stopped at last outside a gloomy-looking hotel on the outskirts of a big city. Dudley and Harriet shared a room with twin beds and damp, musty sheets. Dudley snored but Harriet stayed awake, sitting on the window-sill, staring down at the lights of passing cars and wondering…

*

They ate stale cornflakes and cold tinned tomatoes on toast for breakfast next day. They had just finished when the owner of the hotel came over to their table.

‘’Scuse me, but is one of you Mr H. Potter? Only I got about an ‘undred of these at the front desk.’

She held up a letter so they could read the green ink address:

Mr H. Potter  
Room 17  
Railview Hotel  
Cokeworth

Harriet made a grab for the letter, but Uncle Vernon knocked her hand out of the way. The woman stared. 

‘I’ll take them,’ said Uncle Vernon, standing up quickly and following her from the dining-room. 

*

‘Wouldn’t it be better just to go home, dear?’ Aunt Petunia suggested timidly, hours later, but Uncle Vernon didn’t seem to hear her. Exactly what he was looking for, none of them knew. He drove them into the middle of a forest, got out, looked around, shook his head, got back in the car and off they went again. The same thing happened in the middle of a ploughed field, halfway across a suspension bridge and at the top of a multi-story car park. 

‘Daddy’s gone mad, hasn’t he? Dudley asked Aunt Petunia dully late that afternoon. Uncle Vernon had parked at the coast, locked them all inside the car and disappeared.

It started to rain. Great drops beat on the roof of the car. Dudley snivelled. 

‘It’s Monday,’ he told his mother. ‘The Great Humberto’s on tonight. I want to stay somewhere with a television.’

Monday. This reminded Harriet of something. If it was Monday – and you could usually count on Dudley to know the days of the week, because of television – then tomorrow, Tuesday was Harriet’s eleventh birthday. Of course, her birthdays were never exactly fun – last year, the Dursleys had given him a coat-hanger and a pair of Uncle Vernon’s old socks. Still, you weren’ eleven every day. 

Uncle Vernon was back, and he was smiling. He was also carrying a long, thin package and didn’t answer Aunt Petunia when she asked what he’d bought. 

‘Found the perfect place!’ he said ‘Come one! Everyone out!’

It was very cold outside the car. Uncle Vernon was pointing at what looked like a large rock way out to sea. Perched on top of the rock was the most miserable little shack you could imagine. One thing was certain, there was no television in there. 

‘Storm forecast for tonight!’ said Uncle Vernon gleefully, clapping his hands together. ‘And this gentleman kindly agreed to lend us his boat!’

A toothless old man came ambling up them, pointing, which a rather wicked grin, at an old rowing boat bobbing in the iron-grey water below them. 

‘I’ve already got us some rations,’ said Uncle Vernon, ‘so all aboard!’

It was freezing in the boat. Icy sea spray and rain crept down their necks and a chilly wind whipped their faces. After what seemed like hours, they reached the rock, where Uncle Vernon, slipping and sliding, led the way to the broken-down house. 

The inside was horrible; it smelled strongly of seaweed, the wind whistled through the gaps in the wooden walls and the fireplace was damp and empty. There were only two rooms. 

Uncle Vernon’s rations turned out to be a packet of crisps each and four bananas. He tried to start a fire, but the empty crisp packets just smoked and shrivelled up. 

‘Could do with some of those letters now, eh?’ he said cheerfully. 

He was in a very good mood. Obviously, he thought nobody stood a chance of reaching them here in a storm to deliver post. Harriet privately agreed, though the thought didn’t cheer her up at all. 

As night fell, the promised storm blew up around them. Spray from the high waves splattered the walls of the hut and a fierce wind rattled the filthy windows. Aunt Petunia round a few mouldy blankets in the second room and made up a bed for Dudley on the moth-eaten sofa. She and Uncle Vernon went off to the lumpy bed next door and Harriet was left to find the softest bit of floor she could and to curl up under the thinnest, most ragged blanket. 

The storm raged more and more ferociously as the night went on. Harriet couldn’t sleep. She shivered and turned over, trying to ger comfortable, his stomach rumbling with hunger. Dudley’s snores were drowned by the low rolls of thunder that started near midnight. The lighted dial of Dudley’s watch, which was dangling over the edge of the sofa on his fat wrist, told Harriet she’s be eleven in ten minutes’ time. She lay and watched her birthday tick nearer, wondering if the Dursleys would remember at all, wondering where the letter-writer was now. 

Five minutes to go. Harriet heard something creak outside. She hoped the roof wasn’t going to fall in, although she might he warmer if it did. Four minutes to go. Maybe the house in Privet Drive would be so full of letters when they got back that she’d be able to steal one somehow. 

Three minutes to go. Was that the sea, slapping hard on the rock like that? And (two minutes to go) what was that funny crunching noise? Was the rock crumbling into the sea?

One minute to go and she’d be eleven. Thirty seconds… twenty… ten – nine – maybe she’d wake Dudley up, just to annoy him – three – two – one – 

BOOM.

The whole shack shivered, and Harriet sat bolt upright, staring at the door. Someone was outside, knocking to come in.


End file.
